There is rumour and speculation all over the internet at the moment regarding Google GDrive which is Googles new online storage offerings, the service would apparently be bundled with Google Pack, the company’s software download offering that includes products such as Chrome and Norton Security Scan.
Information leaked on the web outlines Google’s GDrive ambitions: “GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device - be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.” This sounds very similar to Microsoft’s Skydrive and Live Mesh offerings and could be going toe-to-toe.
Could this be a challenge to Microsoft Skydrive and ultimately Sharepoint, this could be a reason why Microsoft are working on BPOS with a view to roll with it in early Q2 at a very aggressive price. No doubt this will be leading to some linked in services with Microsoft Azure.
For those of you not sure about Azure, it was announced in October 2008, and looks promising long term. Microsoft are ramping up their existing and new build datacentres to support this cloud/grid architecture.
Microsoft has been buying tonnes of Dell Servers which they will host and managed themselves, on which they will run a unique hypervisor "Windows Azure Hypervisor" this is not Hyper-V and rumour has it this is running a custom version of Xen in a grid architecture. This is a SaaS offering from Microsoft and a developers delight.